Friday evening course 13 March-24 April 2020 19:00-21:00
Lecturer: Mary Wild
Film and Psychoanalysis emerged in the same year, when the Lumière brothers patented the cinematograph in France in 1895, just as the Viennese neurologist Sigmund Freud published the very first psychoanalytic book Studies on Hysteria with his colleague Josef Breuer. For 125 years these two disciplines have grown alongside each other; influencing and challenging one another. This 6-week course provides an introduction to film and psychoanalysis, featuring popular theoretical concepts such as the Uncanny, Oedipus Complex, the Primal Scene and Neurosis represented in the cinematic arts. A special focus will be placed on the film medium’s unique capacity to communicate unconscious motives often considered taboo by society. Ultimately, it will be argued that psychoanalysis applied to moving image empowers spectators to express subjective associations they consider to be meaningful. Advanced viewing is optional; brief bespoke video montages will be screened.
13 March, Week 1: Dreams
Suggested Viewing: Surviving Life (2010) Jan Švankmajer, Dancer in the Dark (2000) Lars von Trier
20 March, Week 2: The Uncanny
Suggested Viewing: The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie (1972) Luis Buñuel, The Secret Beyond the Door (1947) Fritz Lang
27 March, Week 3: Oedipus Complex
Suggested Viewing: Braindead (1992) Peter Jackson, Luna (1979) Bernardo Bertolucci
3 April, Week 4: Primal Scene
Suggested Viewing: Bad Timing (1980) Nicolas Roeg, Eyes Wide Shut (1999) Stanley Kubrick
17 April, Week 5: Neurosis
Suggested viewing: Into The Wild (2007) Sean Penn, Four Weddings and a Funeral (1994) Mike Newell
24 April, Week 6: Civilization
Suggested Viewing: The Dark Knight (2008) Christopher Nolan, Zelig (1983) Woody Allen
Tickets are £80 for the full six-week course (£75 concession / £70 Picturehouse Members).